Mullus barbatus is exploited by trawl and artisanal fisheries fleets in GSA06, although small gears (trammel nets and gillnets) account only for 5% of their total landings (Demestre et al., 1997). Trawl fisheries developed along the continental shelf and upper slope are multi-species. Small vessels operate almost exclusively on the continental shelf targeting on red mullets, octopus, cuttlefish and sea breams. Medium and large vessels usually operate on the slope areas targeting on hake and decapod crustaceans, but some of these units can also operate on the continental shelf depending on the season (e.g. red mullet is more intensively exploited from September to November; Martín et al., 1999), the weather conditions or market prices. Landings of M. barbatus increased continuously from the earliest 1970's until 1982. From this year until now a general decreasing trend with fluctuations is observed. Important fractions (28% of individuals) of M. barbatus are under the minimum legal size. The total number of boats (trawl fleet) in the GSA06 has been reduced 30% from 1998.

Catch in number of individuals are based on younger ages (0 and 1). Average F for ages 0-2 shows a general decreasing trend over the studied period reflecting the continuous reduction observed in the fleet. Recruitment shows a slight decreasing trend, being under the average of the whole period in the last two years. There isn't any trend in the total biomass whereas SSB shows a slight increasing trend.